This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Wahhabi Destruction of Holy Sites in Makkah & Madina

In 1802, an army led by the sons of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd
al-Wahhab, the great innovator and founder of Wahhabism, and Muhammad ibn Sa’ud
occupied Ta’if and began a bloody massacre. A year later, the forces occupied the holy
city of Makkah. They executed a campaign
of destruction in many sacred places and leveled all the existing domes, even
those built over the well of Zamzam. However,
after the army left, Sharif Ghalib breached the truce, inciting the Wahhabis to
reoccupy Makkah in 1805.

In 1806, the Wahhabi army occupied Madina. They did not leave any religious building,
including mosques, without demolishing it, whether inside or outside the Baqi’.
They intended to demolish the grave of
the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) many
times, but would repeatedly change their minds. At this time, non-Wahhabi Muslims were
prevented from performing the hajj. In 1805, Iraqi and Iranian Muslims were
refused permission to perform hajj,
as were the Syrians in 1806 and Egyptians the following year. The Saudi leader
at the time wanted the pilgrims to embrace his Wahhabi beliefs and accept his
Wahhabi mission. If they refused, he
denied them permission to perform the hajj
and considered them heretics and infidels – ignoring the Words of Allah (s.w.t.):

And who is more unjust
than he who forbids that in places for the worship of Allah His name should be
celebrated? ―Whose zeal is (in fact) to ruin them? It was not fitting that such should themselves
enter them except in fear. For them there
is nothing but disgrace in this world and in the world to come, an exceeding
torment. (Surah al-Baqarah:114)

The Wahhabi army’s destruction campaign targeted the graves
of the martyrs of Uhud, the mosque at the grave of Sayyid ash-Shuhada’ Hamzah ibn
‘Abd al-Muththalib (r.a.) and the
mosques outside Baqi’: the Mosque of Fathima az-Zahra (r.a.), the Mosque of al-Manaratayn, and Qubbat’ ats-Tsanaya, the burial
site of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.)
incisor that was broken in the battle of Uhud. The structures in Baqi’ were also leveled to
the ground and not a single dome was left standing. This great place that was visited by millions
of Muslims over many centuries became a garbage dump, such that it was not
possible to recognize any grave or know whom it embraced.

The occupation of the holy places by the army and their
preventing Muslims from performing hajj
led thousands of people to flee Makkah and Madina to escape religious
persecution. The Muslims started to
complain and express their concerns, and public opinion put pressure on the
Ottoman Caliph to liberate and rebuild the two holy places and once again
permit the Muslims to perform the pilgrimage. Accordingly, an army led by Muhammad ‘Ali
Pasha, the Caliph’s viceroy in Egypt, was sent. When the forces arrived in the Hijaz, a number
of tribes marched in support of the army, which regained control over Madina
and then Makkah. In 1818, the Wahhabis
were defeated and they withdrew from the holy places. The Prophet’s (s.a.w.) Mosque, Baqi’ and the monuments at Uhud were rebuilt during
the reigns of the Ottoman sultans ‘Abd al-Majid I, ‘Abd al-Hamid II and Mahmud
II. From 1848 to i860, the buildings
were renovated and the Ottomans built the domes and mosques in splendid
aesthetic style. They also rebuilt Baqi’
with a large dome over the graves of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima al-Zahra (r.a.), Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (r.a.), Imam Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Baqir (r.a.) and Imam Ja’far asw-Swadiq (q.s.).

The graves of others related to the Prophet (s.a.w.) found at the Baqi’ include those
belonging to Ibrahim (r.a.), ‘Utsman
ibn ‘Affan (r.a.), Swaffia bint’ Abd
al-Muththalib (r.a.), Atsiqa bint
‘Abd al-Muththalib, al-’Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muththalib (r.a.), Fathima bint Assad (r.a.),
‘Abd Allah ibn Ja’far ibn Abi Thalib (r.a.)
and ‘Aqil ibn Abi Thalib (r.a.). The grave of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) father, ‘Abd Allah (r.a.) was in Dar an-Nabigha of the Bani
Najjar, the house of where the Prophet (s.a.w.)
learned to swim. However, his father’s
grave was exhumed 17 years ago and transferred to the Baqi’. The area of the house today lies under the
marble covering the plaza surrounding the mosque.

A number of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) wives were buried in the Baqi’: ‘Aishah (r.a.), Hafswa (r.a.), Juwayriya (r.a.),
Swaffia (r.a.), Sawda (r.a.), Zaynab bint Khuzaymah (r.a.), Zaynab bint Jahsh (r.a.), Umm Habibah (r.a.) and Umm Salamah (r.a.).
The tomb of Khadijah (r.a.), the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) first wife, is in Makkah because
she died before the Hijrah. Her grave is in the Hajun cemetery, known as
Maqbarat’al-Ma’la. The tomb of Maymunah
(r.a.), another wife, is also in Makkah
in an area known as Sarif, which lies on the side of the Hijra Road, nearly 20
kilometers outside Makkah.

On April 21st, 1925, the domes in the Baqi’ were
demolished once more along with the tombs of the holy personalities in
Maqbarat’al-Ma’la in Makkah, where the Holy Prophet’s (s.a.w.) mother, Khadijah (r.a.),
grandfather and other ancestors are buried. Destruction of the sacred sites in the Hijaz
continues until this day. The accursed Wahhabis
say they are trying to rescue Islam from what they consider innovation, deviance
and idolatry. Among the practices they
believe are contrary to Islam are constructing elaborate monuments over graves
and making supplications there.

The Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim which was built to mark the
location of the house where the Prophet’s (s.a.w.)
son, Ibrahim (r.a.), was born to
Maria (r.a.), his Egyptian wife, also
contained the grave of Hamida al-Barbariyya (r.a.), the mother of Imam Musa al-Kazim (r.a.). These sites were
destroyed over the past few years.

I recently met with one of the leading political leaders of
Madina and took the opportunity to speak to him about the destruction of these
holy sites. He told me that the sites
were not being demolished, but that torrential rain in Madina was washing away
the old buildings. I told him the mosque
and tomb of Sayyid Imam ‘Ali al-‘Uraydhi ibn Ja’far asw-Swadiq (r.a.), four miles from the Prophet’s
Mosque, was destroyed by dynamite and flattened on August 13th,
2002. Imam al-‘Uraydhi (r.a.) is ninth in line from the Prophet
(s.a.w.). I also asked him about the plan to demolish
the last remnant of the historical vestiges of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), namely his noble birthplace,
which has been converted into a library, “Maktabat Makkah al-Mukarrama.” There was no answer.

Within the last 10 years, Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi’i, a
student at the University of Medina, wrote a thesis titled “About the Dome
Built over the Grave of the Messenger,” sponsored by Shaykh Hammad al-Ansari. In this paper, the student demands that the
noble grave be brought out of the Mosque. He says the presence of the holy grave and
noble dome are major innovations and that they both need to be destroyed. His thesis received very high marks. Last year, the city planning board of Madina
painted the famous green dome of the Prophet’s Holy Mosque silver. After intense protests by the citizens of Madina,
the board restored the dome to its original color.

In the Ottoman part of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) Mosque, at the center of the three sections raised a bit
from the ground level are three circles. The first, toward the west, corresponds to the
grave of the Prophet (s.a.w.). The next two toward the east correspond to the
graves of Abu Bakr asw-Swiddiq (r.a.)
and ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab (r.a.). Above the circles are invocations including ”
Ya Allah” and “Ya Muhammad.” The latter
was removed and replaced it with ” Ya Majid” by adding the dot under the ‘ha of Muhammad to make itjim and two dots under the second mim of Muhammad to make it ya. There are qaswa’id
written by rulers of the Muslim world, such as Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid. Many verses of the famous Burda of al-Buswiri
(q.s.) had also been painted over. On the Qiblaj side, the brass partition that
is divided into three sections between two columns, the authorities have also
tried to cover the famous two verses inscribed in the east from the story of
al-’Utbi (r.a.) as mentioned by ibn
Katsir (r.a.) in his Tafsir: “O best of those whose bones are buried in the
deep earth, and from whose fragrance the depth and height have become sweet!
May I be the ransom for a grave in which you dwell, where purity, bounty and
munificence.”

If one raises his head a bit, he will see on the first
section of this partition a green banner, on which the words of the Almighty
are framed in yellow:

O ye who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the
Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as ye may speak aloud to one another
lest your deeds become vain and ye perceive not. (Surah al-Hujraat:2)

The Sacred Chamber has four exterior doors: on the south,
Bab at-Tawbah (The Door of Repentance), on the north, Bab at-Tahajjud (The Door
of Night Prayer), on the east, Bab Fathima (the Door of Fatima), and on the
west, Bab an-Nabi (The Door of the Prophet) – also known as Bab al-Wufud (The
Door of Delegations). These gates have
been present since the year 668 AH except for the Gate of the Night Prayer,
which was installed in 729 AH. Inside
there are two gates, one on either side of the triangular part of the interior
compartment. All of these doors are
covered by brass shelves holding Qur’ans, an attempt to prevent the public from
looking inside the Sacred chamber.

The Wahhabi religious authorities are, unfortunately, on a
fast track. In 1998, the grave of Aminah
bint Wahb (r.a.), the Prophet’s
mother, was bulldozed in Abwa and gasoline was poured on it. Even though thousands of petitions throughout
the Muslim world were sent to Saudi Arabia, nothing stopped this action. One of my late teachers, Shaykh Sayyid Muhammad
ibn ‘Alawi al-Maliki, a Makkan who was a great historian on the holy sites and
inherited his knowledge from his father and forefathers who were all teachers
of the holy Haram, showed me pictures of the grave of Sayyida Aminah (r.a.) marked with a pile of stones after
the destruction. The House of Khadijah (r.a.) was excavated during the Haram
extensions, then hurriedly covered over so as to obliterate any trace of it. This was the house where the Prophet received
some of his first revelations and it is also where his children Umm Kultsum (r.a.), Ruqqayah (r.a.), Zaynab (r.a.), Fathima
(r.a.) and Qasim (r.a.) were born. Dar al-Arqam, the first school in Islam where
the Prophet (s.a.w.) taught has also
been demolished. It was in the area of
Shi’b ‘Ali near the Bab ‘Ali door opposite the king’s palace. It is now part of the extension of the Haram.

The authorities plan to demolish the house of Mawlid, where
the Prophet was born. About 60 years
ago, this house, which used to have a dome over it, was turned into a cattle
market. Some people then worked together
to transform it into a library, which it is today. It is lined with shelves of books about Makkah,
most of them written by Makkans. But the
library is under threat again because of the new Jabal ‘Umar project, one of
the largest real estate development projects near the Grand Mosque. The birthplace of the Prophet is to make way
for a car park and hotels. About 99% of
real estate owners in the Jabal ‘Umar area are shareholders in this company. The owners have been provided with financial
incentives, including what they used to receive as rents, combining five-star
facilities under the luxurious Le Meridien banner. The Meridien Towers will allow several
thousand housing units in Mecca to be available during specified periods of
time, for a one-off, fixed fee, giving the towers 25 years of shared ownership
in Makkah. This scheme allow outsiders,
whether Muslim or not, to invest in the city; they will be allowed to buy from
a range of properties that can be used, sublet, resold or given as a gift.

For the holy month of Ramadhan in Makka, authorities built
a wall enclosure in the Haram for women to pray there so men will not be able
to see them. However, this has also
blocked women’s visibility of the Ka’bah while they perform their prayers. The thawaf
for women has also been restricted to certain times. We do not know if these changes are permanent
or just for Ramadhan.

In Madina, of the seven mosques at the site of the Battle
of the Trench (Jabal al-Khandaq), where Surah al-Ahzab was revealed, only two
remain. The others have been demolished
and a Saudi bank’s cash point machine has been built in the area. The remaining mosques will be demolished as
soon as the new mosque being constructed is ready. One of the mosques slated for destruction is
Masjid Fath, the mosque and rock of victory, where the Prophet (s.a.w.) stood during the battle of the
trench praying for victory. On the rock
is where he received Allah’s (s.w.t.)
Promises of victory and of the conquest of Makkah.